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...& a little bit of chicken fried

i am so incredibly thrilled that october is over. october was jam packed full of hard work, little sleep, and lots of stress.

at the tail end of september we bought a house. we’d been renting our house here and decided to make our life here a little more permanent. so we hunted around and settled on this house—known initially as “the asian house with the treadmill”. it was occupied by a vietnamese couple that decided to put a treadmill in the entryway. when you walked in the front door you either had to duck around it or hop on and start exercising. it was odd. the carpet was gross and the walls were a vomit colored shade, so naturally that all had to go. i have some excellent ‘before’ pictures, and i’ll put them up as soon as i get some ‘after’ pictures—which should hopefully be this week!

also at the end of september i had a bit of a job change. i was originally hired to work in a lab for the summer only. i came in when i wanted and worked for as many (or few) hours as i wanted. and then we came to the end of summer and my job should have ended. but it didn’t. i was offered a full-time job—a real grown up job with salary and benefits and lunch hours and things like that. i absolutely love my work and the people that i work with and my routine of driving to and from the office-in-the-middle-of-nowhere. the only problem was that i started working full time about the time we started renovating the new house. whoops.

as if renovating/packing/moving/working wasn’t enough this month, my sister got married the second week of october. in idaho. and there will be more on that later.

so i’ve been a tad busy. but on to the important stuff: today is my birthday! it was the first birthday that i haven’t leapt out of bed with sheer excitement for the day, so i guess that means i’m growing up? no?

i decided last week that i was going to buy myself some cowboy boots. i told my mom (and everyone i work with, and random passerby's on the street, etc.) and was SO EXCITED. friday afternoon i tried to talk my mom into going shopping with me and she declined. i asked if she wanted to go on saturday. she also declined. she tried to talk me into going monday on my lunch break. MONDAY. as in after my birthday. NO WAY. i was dead set on buying some stinking boots. which meant that saturday morning she had no choice but to wake up early, drag everyone into my bedroom, and give me an early birthday present of—guess what!—cowboy boots!

the poor woman was desperately trying to get me to not buy myself a present she’d already bought me. i, however, was still confused. i was pretty groggy. and i thought maybe my mom had forgotten that i was born on the 4th, not the 3rd. she was a day early with the whole presents thing. i was trying to convince her of her error when she unveiled the Ariat box. at which point i promptly stopped protesting and jumped up, knowing that cardboard box certainly contained all of my dreams inside it.

my actual birthday was lovely. i celebrated in my new house in my new hanging bed with my new pillows & duvet (so soft, so fluffy), suspended over new carpet listening to my new sound system staring at my new boots. i’m 21 now, i’m materialistic and shallow. so what.

the absolute highlight to my day was when my best friends from hawaii called and sang a clearly-well-rehearsed rendition of happy birthday. since i didn’t have a picture of it, i drew one:

[dear catherine: i know you are not a hairy-armed man but this was the best button-down-shirt picture i could find.]

their sweet little voices (that i love and miss so much!) were one of the best presents i got.

a large majority of my afternoon was spent exploring a vast, endless country where the dirt roads run along land that’s empty for miles and the blue sky stretches on forever.

lately lubbock has been doing this weird thing where it makes my heart swell a little bit when i think that this is home and i realize how much i love it. listening to zac brown band and driving miles and miles into nowhere is something that brings me joy. so weird.

that sky, man. that sky.

and then i spent the night doing what i’m sure most newly 21 year olds do—soberly teaching my dog to not be such a massive idiot.

it’s not going very well.

thanks so much to everyone who made today such an awesome one—whether it was calls or facebook posts or feet-warming birthday gifts, i seriously appreciate it so much. it is so awesome to have so much to be thankful for and to feel so, so loved. you guys are the best.